


Dominos

by Blinky the Tree Frog (blinkytreefrog)



Category: X-Factor (Comics)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-24
Updated: 2007-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-25 06:50:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1637447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blinkytreefrog/pseuds/Blinky%20the%20Tree%20Frog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Layla Miller talks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dominos

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Dien for the last minute beta :-).
> 
> Written for karrenia
> 
> Please note that this was written in 2007 and has been thoroughly jossed! Still, it was an interesting guess?

 

 

Hey. How you doing down here?

Well yeah, other than the whole 'locked up' thing. I don't know what you expected, really. You knew that X-Factor worked around here. It wasn't like we were _not_ going to notice you kidnapping some of the few mutants there are left--

Oh, of course you were trying to help. I think the kidnapping put your whole 'learning how to duplicate mutant powers' experiment into the realms of _mad_ science rather than actual science, though.

What? No, I haven't just come down here to gloat. Actually, I came to answer your question.

No, really not the one about experimentation, the _other_ one. About how I use my powers. About how it feels to have them. How it feels to _know_ things. 

Because I want to tell you. Do you really need another answer? Would you rather I not?

Yeah, thought so.

Okay, let me start by clearing something up. I don't know the future. Why not? Well, because it's impossible, basically. I can't know the future because there's no such thing as _the_ future. The future doesn't come as a fixed package that's going to happen and that's that. The future is a set of possibilities that are always changing. My power, as I guess you'd call it, is to know the _futures_ , and also, and this is just as important, believe me, to know what it is that I can do to change the probability of one future coming up over another. It's all very well to know what the futures can hold, after all, but that's pretty useless you know how to change one to the other. Unless you know which domino to push to make the whole thing fall down right.

Yeah, it's just like the theory. With the butterfly flapping its wings. They did well with that one. Even more though, it's like the story that used it. You know the one, with the time traveller who goes back? Yeah, The Simpsons did a parody of it with the time travelling toaster. I liked that one too. The basic idea, of the time traveller, that's what I'm getting at. I'm like that time traveller. I can squish a butterfly and change the world. And it's awful.

Because I _am_ like a time traveller. I'm sure you've heard the scenario about whether you'd kill Hitler as a baby. It even happened. To the Fantastic Four. No, really. I'm not kidding! 

The point is, you kill him as a child, you'd prevent a lot of death. But you'd also cause a lot of death as well. Maybe even more. History is a terrible thing to rewrite. Everything you do has a repercussion, and even getting rid of the most evil man in the world can sometimes just cause more disaster. Sometimes, even knowing the consequences, you have to leave some things alone.

Sometimes I have to leave some things alone. And I _know_ , I know that they are causing heartache and misery. I know that people are bleeding and dying. I know that people would call me a monster for not doing something, for not altering the possibilities that I can see so clearly. But it's _because_ I see the possibilities so clearly that I don't try to change them. When you have my power, when you can see through my eyes, you can't look at the little things. The minor deaths, smaller miseries. You have to look at the bigger picture, and line up the dominos to prevent the larger disasters. You have to harden your heart. You have to do what's best for the universe, and ignore your own feelings about the matter.

Kinda the ultimate 'the ends justifies the means'. As I said, I'm pretty sure that some people would say that makes me a monster. I'm not, but I can't imagine there's anything I could say to change their mind.

What am I then, if not a monster? I'm a tool, of course. I'm a pawn. I do what I have to do. I follow the orders of the universe, because the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.

Can I tell you a secret, though? Yeah, I thought I could. 

There's a future I've seen. A possibility. In it, I fall in love. Real love. None of the brief, flighty stuff. He feels the same way. We get married. I'm happy. I'm _happy_. I can feel it radiate out, even from way in that future.

And I'm holding on to it. I'm looking at the possibilities, and I'm making _sure_ it stays up high in the list. I'm making sure that there's a good chance it'll happen. Even if that means that ten other people are miserable. Even if that means that more people are...

I'm still doing it. I'm doing it for me.

What? Am I afraid? Oh, afraid that you'll tell my team-mates what I'm doing. Believe me, it's nothing they don't already suspect. But to answer your question; no. No, I have to say that I'm not afraid of that.

Why? Well, why do _you_ suppose? What do you think the possibilities are?

In any case, I have to go now. Things to do, dominos to place. I'm glad I had this conversation though. I liked talking to you.

What? Can we do it again? No. No, I don't think that will be possible, sorry.

And I am sorry, honest.

Goodbye. 

 


End file.
